Semifinal Draft: Phoenix Foundation vs. Slay Pillage Gerard

Aaron Forsythe

This matchup should be very interesting, as both teams have ridden the strategy of black/X in seat A, blue/green in seat B, and red/white in seat C to the top of the standings. Now that they know they'll be playing what looks like three mirror matchups, it will be interesting to see whether the New Yorkers or the Germans have a better contingency plan.

The teams are:

Phoenix Foundation A Dirk Baberowski B Kai Budde C Marco Blume

Slay Pillage Gerard A Jon Sonne B Gerard Fabiano C Scott McCord

Kai chose to kick off for some odd reason once he won the flip, possibly because he didn't expect either team to switch colors reactively. Kai took Rabid Elephant from the first pack, and Marco took Embolden. Sonne opted for Dirty Wererat over Morbid Hunger, which McCord defensively drafted. Baberowski wheeled Crypt Creeper and Pilgrim of Virtue, which is exactly the kind of stuff he was looking for.

Marco's pack presented him with an Iridescent Angel, which he obviously took. He now had the option to go white/blue or to simply splash the Angel into white/red. Slay Pillage Gerard took another Wererat, an Aven Windreader, and a Chainflinger in order, showing they planned to stick to their strategies.

Over the next two packs, Sonne took a Scrivener first, then wheeled a Werebear and a Peek. It looked like he had no plans of playing the more traditional black/red or black/white, but rather was looking to blue or green as his second color. Since black/blue normally loses to black/red, green would be the better choice.

The third pack was interesting in that Fabiano opened a Pardic Collaborator. Neither black player was in red, so Sonne took Cabal Torturer over it. Dirk did end up with the Collaborator, and may play three colors because of it. (Black/white/red has been played a fair amount in the A seat in this event, and there isn't even Dega Disciple to reward you.)

The middle of Judgment went normally, with Kai picking up two Elephant Guides of his own. Dirk had to counterdraft the second Thriss because Sonne would wreck him with it. Similarly, Sonne countered a Selfless Exorcist from Marco at McCord's insistence, because it can "eat" Anger and keep his Vigilant Sentries from threshold.

After the draft, the Germans stated that Filth is better in the black-on-black match than any other card is in any other matchup (including Glory, Aboshan, you name it). While I agree that if Filth had gotten to Sonne it would have destroyed Dirk, Dirk's deck is not very aggressive, he has only two ways to discard, and Sonne has two Gravegougers. I may have taken the Vampire and had Kai counter the Filth.

As it stands, Dirk's matchup against Sonne is very bad. Dirk is playing three colors with a lot of defensive weenies, and Sonne has a much more robust deck full of monsters. I expect Dirk to lose.

Sonne going into green may have made Gerard's deck just a tad worse, and I think Kai has a sleight edge in the middle, especially because of his excellent array of creature enchantments. Marco and McCord have similar decks with Marco possessing the trump card of Iridescent Angel (although McCord may have grabbed a Sandstone Deadfall).

Phoenix Foundation is the clear underdog in the A seat, giving then no breathing room in B and C where they have sleight advantages. It looks 50/50 on paper, but Phoenix Foundation always wins against even odds, so I expect to see them in the finals for a second straight year.